Sedation

Children often need to have tests or procedures that may be painful or difficult to hold still for. Sedation can be provided with various medications to allow children to undergo these tests or procedures comfortably and safely.

Depending of the type of medication and how it's given, children may be simply relaxed, drowsy or deeply asleep. Unlike general anesthesia, during sedation children breathe on their own without the aid of a doctor or a ventilator. Our highly trained sedation physicians and nurses work with families to determine the appropriate sedation for each child undergoing a procedure or test so they stay comfortable and safe.

We offer comprehensive sedation services, including inhaled (breathed in), oral (through the mouth), or intravenous (through an IV) sedation. We use sedation medication as needed to help kids (especially babies and young children) during procedures such as:

• Broken bone (fracture) casting, setting, pin removal, etc.
• Central venous line (central line) insertion and/or removal (Putting in or taking out a long, thin, flexible tube that’s placed into the larger veins of the neck or groin and travels to a large blood vessel near the heart.)
• Intravenous (IV) line placement (Inserting a thin, flexible tube into the vein with a small needle to deliver fluids and medications.)
• Minor surgical procedures
• Oncology (cancer) procedures
• Radiology imaging (MRI, nuclear medicine, CT scan)
• Stitches (sutures) insertion and/or removal (Putting in or taking out stitches for surgical and other wounds.)
• Urinary catheter insertion and/or removal (Putting in or taking out a hollow, soft tube to help drain the bladder of urine.)
• Wound bandage/dressing changes

Our sedation service performs 3,000 sedations per year for a variety of procedures and was recently designated a Center of Excellence in Pediatric Sedation by the Society for Pediatric Sedation. This designation reflects our commitment to providing an environment for the delivery of safe, effective, efficient and timely patient-centered pediatric procedural sedation.

Our compassionate team includes sedationists (pediatric emergency physicians or pediatricians with extensive experience and training in providing sedation), anesthesiologists (physician specialists), advanced practice nurses (APNs), and registered nurses (RNs). Everyone on our team is extremely well trained and experienced in working with sedation in children.

Regional Pediatric Sedation Highlights

Services, programs and care teams differ at each location. Call for details.

Delaware Valley/Greater Philadelphia

We offer pediatric procedural sedation at Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware (Wilmington).

• Medical unit (called "Day Medicine") devoted only to providing sedation for kids
• Region’s only children’s hospital to use nitrous oxide, a very quick-acting, inhaled sedation medicine that doesn’t cause a deep sleep, like with anesthesia. Once stopped, it wears off within a couple minutes, with no side effects.
• Use of propofol, another quick-recovery, low-complication medicine. Other regional pediatric hospitals use pentobarbital, a drug shown to have longer recovery times and more complications, especially with children.